77-year-old sailor Jeanne Socrates has become the oldest person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and unassisted, having returned to her departure port of Victoria, Canada, after 388 days at sea aboard her yacht Nereida.

The intrepid sailor from Lymington in Hampshire endured a knockdown, enforced repairs and dodged cyclones on her single-handed effort. Along the way she had to deal with multiple mainsail repairs, a blown-out genoa, failed electronics and instruments, and losing her solar panels overboard – on top of the usual deprivations and hardships of such a voyage.

Pic: Ocean Cruising Club

Her achievement is all the more remarkable, as the voyage began as Jeanne was still recuperating from serious injuries including a broken neck and ribs sustained in a fall while first preparing for the circumnavigation in 2017.

“She was not in the best physical shape when she left, but she managed, she survived this journey against great odds and we are amazed by her resourcefulness,” her friend Steve Illman told the BBC.

Jeanne was met by a flotilla of boats who accompanied her into port where a large number of friends and well-wishers had gathered. She is no stranger to single-handing, having already entered the record books as the oldest woman to sail around alone in 2013 at the age of 70.